


Just be friends

by Nemuissleepy



Series: Good Thing [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Anxiety, Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff & Angst, Mental Health Issues, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Soft Sakusa Kiyoomi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-22 10:54:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30037590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemuissleepy/pseuds/Nemuissleepy
Summary: It'd be useless to pick up fallen petals because it'd never bloom againBut someone would pick them up anyway.
Relationships: Sakusa Kiyoomi & Reader, Sakusa Kiyoomi/Reader
Series: Good Thing [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188806
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. How we met

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is part 2 of Good Thing.
> 
> If you're here from Easy, then welcome back (´• ω •`)ﾉ
> 
> This story will explore the backstory of Sakusa and Reader-chan's relationship and how did it end up the way it did in Easy.
> 
> To read Good Thing chronologically, do read this first before Easy.
> 
> Enjoy Chapter 1! ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

The day Sakusa Kiyoomi met you was ordinary.

Just like any other day, Sakusa woke up at 6.30 AM for his usual morning run. He stops running at 7.15 AM, taking a shower at his apartment at 7.30 AM. At 7.45 AM, Sakusa packs his volleyball gear before leaving the flat at 7.53 AM before embarking on a 5-minute walk to his university. Making his way to the men’s locker room, Sakusa places his duffel bag in his locker at 8.05AM before starting self-practice at 8.08 AM.

Morning volleyball practice starts at 9.00 AM, by the way.

Sakusa is a staunch believer in hard work. After all, he was a living and breathing example of the results of persistent effort. Sure, Sakusa was born with extra flexible wrists. But without his discipline to work on his passion every single day, those wrists would just be a fun party trick he could show off but never harness.

This is why Sakusa absolutely abhor it when strangers fawn over him because he appears to be simply good at a sport.

Did these people realise what it was like to devote _years_ of your life doing one thing and being good at it? For many years, people made fun of Sakusa for being a weirdo for practising so hard every day even though it was _“just another club”._

While others did 10 bumps, he did 100. While the rest did 50 serves, he did 200. While his teammates were having fun eating garigari-kun after practice, Sakusa was doing 1000 wall drills until he mastered hitting the ball at weird angles that was almost impossible to return.

Did any of these people see that?

It is 11.03 AM now and Sakusa somehow found himself surrounded by a few fangirls outside of his lecture hall. Sakusa recognised them as members of his fan club and can’t help but flinch at their enthusiasm, feeling extremely awkward and put off by the interaction. Sakusa can’t be bothered to deal with them now, seeing it was already 4 minutes late for class. 

One girl shyly handed him some homemade cookies and Sakusa gulped behind his mask, repulsed by the idea. How could he accept anything, food especially, from someone he hardly knows?

Sakusa cursed in his head. He needs an escape route.

But how? Sakusa was already surrounded by them. As the minutes passed, Sakusa noted, they seemed to get closer and closer to him. His skin began to itch as they got closer. Palms sweaty and knees weak, Sakusa checked his watch.

He was 10 minutes late now. 

Sakusa eyed the door nervously.

If only he could get there.

\---

Memories of that day seem a little fuzzy to you.

You don’t remember exactly what happened. Did you forget to set an alarm? Or maybe you snoozed just a little too much?

Whatever. You were late for class.

You jolted awake at 10.30 AM, realising you were going to be late if you don’t get your butt out of bed right this moment. 

You dashed into the washroom to freshen up in record time before putting on some light makeup. Running to your wardrobe you quickly put on a navy t-shirt and black culottes before throwing a grey cardigan in your bag in case the lecture hall was cold. Thankfully your bag was packed last night and all you had to do was to put on some shoes, say a hasty bye to your roommate and dashed out of the door.

You took your first step into university at 11.00 AM sharp, despite your best efforts. Panting heavily, you feel a migraine coming if you don’t get your daily morning drug. Deciding you were already going to be late anyway, what’s the difference between 5 minutes and 15 minutes?

You got yourself a latte from the cafeteria before making your way to the lecture hall. 

_No regrets._

Your legs mindlessly led you to the lecture hall soon after and the scene that greeted you was not what you expected.

Usually, in the middle of lectures, hallways are empty. Devoid of life.

This scene, however, is much the contrary.

If all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players; then you must be in the middle of a highschool romance where fangirls existed.

Jesus Christ, the _squealing_. Your barely caffeinated brain hurts at the high pitched noise.

At first, you thought it was perhaps another popular guy flirting with a bunch of girls (a scene that, as a bestie of Kuroo Tetsurou, you were overly familiar with). But as you paid closer attention, something about the scene looked a little off.

Typically, if it was a flirty male in his natural habitat, the guy should be flashing these girls a devilish smirk or a wink to attract their prey. Thereafter, the flirty male would maybe swing their arm over a blushing girl’s shoulder or pay her a compliment or two, trapping her. Daring ones might even give her a quick peck, going for the kill.

This guy, though, seems a little out of place.

Instead of exuding an air of confidence or cockiness, the man seems a little nervous and awkward. His body language seems to scream that he wants to get out of there, evident from his nervous shifting and the fact that he was constantly checking his watch as if doing so will make the time go any faster. 

Unlike the abovementioned flirty male, this man seems to be repulsed by the idea of touching any of them. As the fangirls circled closer to him, he seemed to flinch a little, trying to make himself as small as possible to avoid contact.

 _‘Ah’_ , as you connected the dots, _‘this guy needs some help.’_

For a moment you wonder if these girls were simply oblivious to this man’s anxiety, or did they simply not care.

Humans are such contradictory creatures, you thought. If you like someone shouldn’t you pay more attention to them? Care a little extra about why they are acting a certain way or how they are feeling?

From the obnoxious squeals, you quickly learnt that the guy’s name is Sakusa. The name sounds vaguely familiar. You have a feeling you heard it before from someone, but you just can’t place your finger on it.

Oh well, you got a class to attend. 

You also had a guy to save.

Taking a deep breath, you pray you’re not being nosy.

_Welp here goes nothing._

You walk up to the group as confidently as a half caffeinated brain could master.

“Hey Sakusa,”

The group turns to you immediately. Some of the girls were glaring at you suspiciously while one or two appeared to look at you in awe, seeming to give you an imaginary salute for daring to call his name without an honorific.

On the other hand, Sakusa (?) looked over to you with a surprised expression, basically silently asking ‘do I know you?’

_God, work with me here._

With an internal eye roll and sigh, you said as matter-of-factly as possible, nodding towards the door. “Class started already you know? Are you planning to skip?”

Good thing that the gears in his head worked quickly. Understanding what you were trying to do, Sakusa (?) shook this head gently.

“No, I’m going.” he corrected. Turning to the girls surrounding him, “I’ll get going.”

The girls let out whines in disappointment but soon relented as they finally noticed him eyeing the door of the lecture hall longingly. Soon enough they parted a clear path and Sakusa (?) quickly got to the door, avoiding any physical contact with some strategic positioning.

You made it to the door at the same time as he did. Sakusa (?) pushed the door open, holding it for you to enter as well.

Before going to your usual seat at the back of the hall, you heard a soft thanks muttered in your direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos appreciated! 
> 
> Smol acts of kindness/encouragement keep me writing. I always feel like my writing isn't good so sometimes I lose steam/run into writer's block.
> 
> Thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


	2. Distractions

Too embarrassed to take his usual seat at the front of the lecture hall when he was late, Sakusa settled for a seat next to you.

Okay, Sakusa wasn’t next to you. The two of you were separated by a seat in between, currently resided by your backpack. But he was close enough.

Sakusa swore he could smell a sweet scent with a hint of coffee wafting from your direction. 

If he could smell you, it is definitely close enough.

In a swift motion, you took out your laptop and began rattling your fingers off of the keyboard, typing furiously. The loud inconsistent rhythm your fingers were going at is beginning to get to Sakusa.

Usually, he wasn’t easily affected by noises like that. Sakusa wasn’t weak like a certain blond who couldn’t even serve without pin drop silence. 

Perhaps his nerves haven't subsided and your typing isn’t helping.

Sakusa tried to write some notes down, but the jittery hands made his handwriting so illegible they might as well be hieroglyphs. He tried his absolute best to pay attention, but this rapid beating of his heart makes it almost impossible

_Badump. Badump. Badump._

Damn, his anxiety is getting quite bad, huh? Sakusa wrote a mental note to look at mediation techniques later after class.

Fighting away the nerves that plagued his chest and his hands, he chose to instead focus on what happened earlier. 

Sceptical Sakusa began to ask a series of questions in his mind. Who are you? Why did you do that? How did you know? Where were you from? Did you study business too? Why were you late?

Why is your typing… Just. So. Loud?

The bell rang, snapping Sakusa out of his reverie.

You were already done packing. With an empty coffee cup in hand and your backpack carelessly slung over your shoulder, you stood dangerously close to Sakusa.

_Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump._

“Can I help you with something?” Sakusa quipped and he mentally whacked himself in the head. Why can’t he be nice or smooth like a normal person instead of just being rude to someone who literally just helped him with something?

“Oh. excuse me. I was just trying to get to the door.” you explained, offering a soft smile.

_Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump. Badump._

“Ah, go ahead then.” Sakusa angled his long legs to give you some space and he noted that you gingerly passed him, careful to avoid any contact.

For some reason, his chest clenched a little.

 _Just_ a little.

While you were slowly scooting over to the door, avoiding the man’s impossibly long legs and giving yourself a medal for not grazing him, you can’t help but notice that Sakusa’s notebook was empty.

Was that incident earlier still affecting him?

Poor dude.

“Do you want a copy of mine?” you offered, nodding towards his empty notebook. “It’s not the best, but I suppose it’s better than nothing?”

Sakusa turned in your direction so suddenly you were surprised he didn’t get whiplash from that. 

This, you realised, was the first time you were able to see Sakusa’s face fully.

You first noticed his fair skin, features framed by his curly locks. His forehead was adorned by two little moles above his right eyebrow. In a moment, the two of you locked eyes. You couldn’t avoid staring into his onyx eyes and a jab went straight to your chest.

This is odd.

“Um, that will be great. Thanks.”

Tugging a stray lock of hair behind your ear, you waved it off. “No worries. What’s your email?”

Sakusa flipped to an empty page on his notebook before ripping it cleanly off the spine. He scribbled his name and email on the torn page with his neat scrawl.

“Here you go. Again, thanks for the help.” Sakusa’s eyes seem to wrinkle a little at the corners. Was he smiling?

You couldn’t tell from the mask.

You took the paper off of his hands, peeking at the writing. Sakusa Kiyoomi? The name was really familiar now. Someone from high school definitely mentioned this name before, but you can’t wrap your head around to remember exactly who.

“I’ll send it to you tonight or so okay?” with a turn of your heel you made your way towards the exit and flashed him a polite smile. “I’ll see you around.”

  
\---

It took Sakusa five whole minutes before he snapped himself awake from whatever spell he was convinced you put on him and realised one thing.

He didn’t catch your name.

Scratching his head, Sakusa wonders when he has become such a dunce. The lecture hall was empty now save for a few loitering around the area like he was. Sakusa packed his things neatly in his duffel bag before heading to the cafeteria and found a quiet spot for lunch. He slathered some hand sanitiser on his palms before muttering his thanks and digging into his gyudon set lunch gratefully.

Sakusa was not one who was constantly on this phone, but that day was the day that changed him. While mindlessly feeding himself with his right hand, Sakusa was checking his emails with his left.

Just wondering if he had missed anything during morning practice and lecture, he told himself. 

After he was done opening all of his emails, all he got was a couple of junk mail and some advertisements for a new pair of shoes he didn’t need. Sakusa refreshed the application a couple of times, just making sure that he read all of his emails. 

Did he think doing so would make a certain email come sooner?

Who knows. She did say she was going to send it tonight, whenever that is.

_Bzzt!_

The device sprang to life in his hand, surprising its owner to the point that it almost met its imminent death.

_Phone, meet miso soup. Miso soup, meet phone._

Thankfully, years of volleyball practice meant that Sakusa has honed his reflexes well enough to save his phone from falling to its doom. Sakusa took a few quick breaths to calm his raging heart and unlocked the device in a hurry.

@MiyaOsamu: Ya ok?

Usually, Sakusa was amiable to the man. 

Today? Not so much.

@SakusaK: What do you want?

@MiyaOsamu: Nothin’. Why did ya miss class?

Sakusa didn’t feel like admitting that he was distracted.

That he was held back because of a few fangirls his socially awkward self didn’t know how to handle. That he wasn’t paying attention to the class because he was too concerned over another girl who saved him and had this habit of destroying her keyboard.

He sure as hell is not going to admit that he _forgot_ Osamu was sharing this class with him, likely due to the above-mentioned distractions, that Sakusa could have called him for help and he didn’t.

Because Sakusa Kiyoomi _doesn’t_ get distracted.

Eyeing the message for way too long with scrunched up eyebrows and a pouty lip, Sakusa locked the device, throwing it into the abyss of his duffel bag.

Sakusa emptied the gyudon soon enough and went about his day. He made sure to take lesser-known pathways to his classes, avoiding people that may know him.

Afterall, Sakusa knows he cannot count on you to miraculously save him again.

\---

It was 10 PM now.

Sakusa was in his apartment, showered and minty fresh. He sat in his living area, phone in hand, as he tapped on his email application again for the nth time today.

Nothing.

Did you forget about the notes? 

Did you forget about him?

Annoyed, Sakusa threw the offensive device onto the other side of the couch before picking up the remote control for the television and began channel surfing. He found a sports channel having a rerun of a volleyball match he had already taped and watched and decided he was gonna review it again, hoping to learn something new out of it

Sakusa got into the zone soon enough, eagle eyes analysing the plays dished out by the two teams. The setter was going for his second serve befor-

_Bzzt!_

Sakusa perked up at the noise. Tearing his eyes away from the game, he picked up his phone, flashing a small smile as he read the notification. The phone unlocked itself, recognising Sakusa’s face before the man finally tapped the email application again.

**From: e5201314@tokyouniversity.edu.jp**  
**To: Sakusa.K@email.com**  
**Subject: Finance Lecture 3 notes**

Hi Sakusa,

Apologies for the delay. I was trying to clean up the notes before sending them over to you. Here you go! Hope it helps.

[Attachment: Finance Lecture 3 (Cleaned) .docx]

Regards,  
[Name]

The match forgotten, Sakusa opened the attachment immediately. Indeed, the notes were neat and easy to understand. You must have taken some time to make sure to colour coordinate key terms and definitions and to put in some extra examples the lecturer didn’t cover in class.

Why were you so kind to him? You could have just sent him your first draft, probably messy and all over the place instead of this…

\---  
Ping!

**From: Sakusa.K@email.com**  
**To: e5201314@tokyouniversity.edu.jp**  
**Subject: Re:Finance Lecture 3 notes**

Hi [l/n],

Appreciate the notes. 

There are some parts I don’t really understand. Do you mind going them through with me sometime next week?

Regards,  
Sakusa

You read and reread his email again.

Did Sakusa Kiyoomi just ask if you could teach him Finance?

 _Hello?!_ Shouldn’t _he_ be teaching you? He’s the one with a scholarship here!

After learning his full name, you did a quick google on the man, thinking nothing of it and trying your luck.

Initially expecting 1 or 2 hits, your phone was flooded with volleyball news instead.

_Up-and-coming volleyball player Sakusa Kiyoomi enters Tokyo University with a full-ride scholarship!_

_Sakusa Kiyoomi, one of Japan’s top highschool aces for volleyball, enters Tokyo University._

_Which faculty is the 2nd hottest highschool volleyball player going to? Stay tuned to find out._

Jesus Christ this man is so popular he has a full-on fanmade tabloid site that followed him all the way from his Itachiyama days till university. There were even some photos of Sakusa shirtless, likely changing in the locker rooms, on the website and just wondered how the hell did they snap a picture of that?!

Invasion of privacy much?

The google search also quickly hit you on why the name is so familiar. Kuroo mentioned him a few times in high school, proudly claiming that Nekoma was going to beat Karasuno and Itachiyama and win Nationals.

Well, we all know how _that_ went down.

You plopped your butt down the hard floor of the dance studio, haphazardly swiping the hair that stuck to your sweaty face as you drank some water greedily. You eyed the email again. 

How should you reply?

One of your dance mates yelled in your direction, demanding you get back to practice. Placing the device back into your bag, you sprang back into action right when the music began.

  
\---

The reply came a good 53 minutes and 27 seconds later. 

Not that Sakusa was keeping track. 

**From: e5201314@tokyouniversity.edu.jp**  
**To: Sakusa.K@email.com**  
**Subject: Re:Finance Lecture 3 notes**

Heyo!

I’m not too confident about the concepts myself. So I’m not sure if I am able to help you out. 

But if you want we can do a study session together and discuss? I’m available on Tuesday morning or on weekends. Let me know if those days work for you.

[Name]

Sakusa blinked a couple of times.

He can’t believe that worked.

He knew it was silly to ask a fellow student for help in class but Sakusa just needed an excuse to see you again.

Did he just say excuse? He meant _reason_.

He needed a _reason_ to see you again.

He’s not really helping his case, is he?

Moving on.

Sakusa reviewed your notes the next morning, grateful that he didn’t have to spend time rearranging things or making sense of things when you made it so easy for him.

He understood what he missed during the lecture perfectly.

To be fair to him, there were some things Sakusa suspects that you missed out on during the class since you were late as well. 

Sakusa was just using that to, you know, make sure both of you understood the material.

That’s all.

**From: Sakusa.K@email.com**  
**To: e5201314@tokyouniversity.edu.jp**  
**Subject: Re:Finance Lecture 3 notes**

Hi [l/n],

Tuesday morning works for me. Shall we meet at 10 AM?

Separately, do you mind exchanging line information so that it is easier for us to contact each other on the day itself? You may find me as @Hinatora on Line.

Regards,  
Sakusa

Sakusa gulped. He has never given anyone but his family his personal line username. His @SakusaK account was also private but that was shared with his friends and some volleyball mates. Sakusa thought that that account may be too overwhelmed with messages that he may miss yours.

Since you guys were studying together, Sakusa thought it was the responsible thing to do as a good scholarship student.

A vibration buzzed on this hand and a notification from Line lit up.

_A friend request from @you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos appreciated!
> 
> Thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


End file.
